I live in a wealthy county in NJ (though I'm certainly not wealthy) but despite the $$$ here, there is a large homeless population. Due to some whistle-blowing on the part of an executive director who has run a small homeless drop-in center, the city has found "violations" and have closed her down. This comment was posted on that city's forum by a critic of this woman and her work...

Here's a quote from 19th century philosopher and successful businessman Wallace D. Wattles:

"Do not spend your time in so-called charitable work or charity movements; most charity only tends to perpetuate the wretchedness it aims to eradicate. I do not say that you should be hard-hearted or unkind and refuse to hear the cry of need, but you must not try to eradicate poverty in any of the conventional ways...The poor do not need charity; they need inspiration. Charity only sends them a loaf of bread to keep them alive in their wretchedness, or gives them an entertainment to make them forget for an hour or two. But inspiration can cause them to rise out of their misery. If you want to help the poor, demonstrate to them that the can become rich. Prove it by getting rich yourself. The only way in which poverty will ever be banished from this world is by getting a large and constantly increasing number of people to practice the teachings of this book".

Interesting food for thought. I'm sure more than a few people will choke on it. I'm reading his book right now. I don't agree with everything in it, especially his beliefs regarding science and the power of human thought, but he does put an interesting perspective in some modern problems.

The poor need a lot of things in different places...

-in some countries, they need weapons.
-in all countries, they need unions and solidarity.
-in all countries, they need high taxes on the rich.

In no country do they need New Age/New Thought "everybody can be rich" crap like that of Wattles, Robbins, Tom Vu, etc.

I agree on the point of charity. Charity is no replacement for effective government programs and wealth redistribution. Not everybody can be rich and to continue to delude people like this is part of the problem...

Hi Hope...

I happen to have read basically every major writing in the history of New Thought starting from the Quimby Papers from the 1800's...it really is quite fascinating.
The chart is a pretty good overview.
[websyte.com]

The public-hysteria around The Secret by Rhonda Byrne recently, seems to be the same as the hysteria over Christian Science "Mind Cure" stuff in the late 1800's.

Wallace Wattles of course, is from the New Thought Movement. He was basically a very minor figure, who was just parroting what he heard, apparently from Emma Curtis Hopkins (1849–1925)
[en.wikipedia.org]
Emma is actually pretty interesting, she is one of the New Thought writers books I have retained, as she has more depth than her imitators.
So it appears that Emma taught Wattles, and he decided to try and do his own thing like many of her other students, who were the more well-known founders of New Thought churches.

My view is that Rhonda Byrne picked Wallace Wattles, as he is not well known, and his books were public domain, thus allowing her to use him as a source, and pretend she did not just copy more well-known New Thought people, which is all that she did.
But Wallace was not in any way a significant player in the origin of New Thought. He just went to lectures, and regurgitated some stuff. And he died at age 51 and was in poor health! (so much for New Thought and Health).

By the way, you can get any of this guys books for free online.
[websyte.com]
This guy has linked Wattles with the Unity Church,


Its a common New Thought idea that we all create ALL of our realities, and that includes money, as well as health, and literally everything else. So if you have cancer, you created it, and if you are poor, you created that too. If lighting strikes you and makes you blind...you created that too.
so the idea that the poor are poor because they have Poor Thinking, is right out of New Thought.
Health and Wealth are the cornerstones of New Thought.
New Thought-ers believe in Prosperity, and that is why they are all so greedy for the big bucks!!

The most important lesson I learned about the early...and current New Thought writers, is that they will lie with impugnity...to them its not even a lie...hey, its true in their Mind, so that's all that counts to them. Mary Baker Eddy, right on down to Rhonda Byrne, are masters of fabrication.

So its fun to read that stuff, but always remember, New Thought people will like their fucking asses off, and tell you its the Christ Consciousness talking!!
:-)

But it is interesting stuff...yes, New Thought says poor people are poor due to poor Thinking.
Of course, there is a grain of truth to all of that stuff. Give most people a million bucks cash and they will piss it all away. But my view New Thought just takes it way too far, and turns it into blame the victim...but there is a grain of truth in there somewhere...
its that little philosophical problem called Free Will...
:-)

Typo from above:
I should have typed....
-------
So its fun to read that stuff, but always remember, New Thought people will LIE their fucking asses off, and tell you its the Christ Consciousness talking!!
:-)

OK, honestly I don't mean to pick on Oprah [well, maybe I do...a little :-)], but a while back I was reading various websites and I came across this link, which give a lot of good info and a general overview of the New Thought thing. I liked the way this article sort of tied it all together. I found it helpful in seeing how things got to the point where they are today.

[www.conspiracyarchive.com]

It just occurred to me how all this stuff ties together.
Its basically all just a form of hypnotic and Trance autosuggestion.

The primary thing all these things are, is the Conformation Bias.
[www.skepdic.com]
We remember things that seem to work, and forget those that don't.

but in addition, New Thought is basically pure self-hypnosis, or autosuggestion, or Autogenic training, etc.
Its putting yourself into a suggestible altered state, a Trance, and then implanting powerful verbal-visual suggestions.

For example, Quimby did straight up Mind Cure hypnotic stuff taken right from Mesmer.

Christian Science took over, and she made it Christian. So they believe that Jesus Christ is literally going to cure them, so that is a powerful Suggestion. Suggestion can work in certain instances, but not all. (that is why Christian Scientists have poor health, no doctors).

Emma Curtis Hopkins made it more about alleged mystical Mind Science Principles...

Then guys like Wattle came along, and took the same tools, but talked mostly about money. Now of course, if you TRULY believe the Universe wants you to get rich quick, and you REALLY believe it, like some of them did, then are you not going to work harder? Also, they get the idea to sell a bunch of books about How To Get Rich and get rich!
sweet.

Then you move right up to The Secret, which is the exact same thing, with a New Age Jesus.
Then you have Byron Katie, who is doing Advanced Techniques, and negative commands...and all that stuff, but its still just Suggestion in the end.
Verbal and Visual Suggestion.

And Oprah with Tolle is doing a version of the same thing.

So basically, New Thought, Self-Hypnosis, Autosuggestion, Autogenic Training, Trance, The Secret, Prosperity Prayers, Byron Katie cult, EFT, TFT, Tolle, etc, are all the exact same thing, just in different varied formats.

Suggestion, Visual and Verbal.

Those who gets some results do so due to how much they "believe" in it, as Suggestion can be powerful.
But it has limits, of course, and that is where it fails, and people wrongly blame themselves.

So basically all of this is a subset of Cognitive Science, and Cognitive Therapy, which is about "Information Processing" in the human brain and nervous system, which includes automatic processing.

The cool thing is you can use some of the Autosuggestion and Visualization techniques without all of the nonsense, and get even better results, as its more connected to factual reality.

hmm... cult persuasion, LGAT hypnosis, auto-suggestion, and New Thought, its clear they are really all just varied forms of the same thing.

Information Processing in the brain-mind, using Suggestions (verbal-visual) and belief in those suggestions.

hey, that article was good. I agree with most of it...too bad he didn't spend more time showing how each of those early New Thoughters were Snake-Oil people...from what I can see, all of them were. Mary Baker Eddy was like an anal-fascist Byron Katie high on Jesus.

They lost me at the Rosicrucian thing, but I guess that website is about that topic? My view is she put that in The Secret to make it look like the fake DaVinci Code spooky...it worked.

but that aside, I am quite certain basically the entire thing is hypnotic and Trance autosuggestion...which can work, but its not supernatural, there is no evidence for that. It appears to be completely naturalistic...but that's not as spooky, I guess...

Quote
DownToEarth
OK, honestly I don't mean to pick on Oprah [well, maybe I do...a little :-)], but a while back I was reading various websites and I came across this link, which give a lot of good info and a general overview of the New Thought thing. I liked the way this article sort of tied it all together. I found it helpful in seeing how things got to the point where they are today.

[www.conspiracyarchive.com]

A book collection of Wallace Wattles (I love that name!) came up randomly in a library search I was doing.
It seems to be 3 of his books.

These publishers are VERY SMART. Take 3 public domain books that are FREE, and package it, and add "The Secret" in the title...
That is the REAL SECRET of Getting Rich.
Sell the people what they want!!
Get Rich Quick and Easy.

So you gotta love the online public library thee days, its so easy to have a quick look at these types of books...

----------------------------------------

The science of success : the secret to getting what you want : three prosperity classics
Wattles, Wallace Delois, 1860-1911.
(Science of getting rich - Science of being well - Science of being great)
[www.amazon.com]
ISBN-10: 1402753144

Book Description

THREE prosperity classics in one!
Includes The Science of Getting Rich, featured in The Secret.
Why be poor when you could be rich, mediocre when you could be great, sick when you could be healthy? You have within you the ability to get whatever you want! Prosperity guru Wallace D. Wattles reveals how to tap into this secret power to channel the abundance of the universe and make all your dreams a reality. His method is simple and straightforward, yet it opens up a world where opportunity is limitless, where we control of our own destiny, and where there are scientific answers to life’s great philosophical and religious questions. The Science of Success contains three prosperity classics in a single volume, and all in color, including Wattles’s most famous, The Science of Getting Rich, featured prominently in Rhonda Byrne’s bestselling The Secret. Together, these life-changing books reverse many accepted ideas about attracting wealth, and guide readers along a path to health, success, and fulfillment.

That book was listed at the library under the subject "NEW THOUGHT", which is good they have that subject at libraries now.
But under the New Thought subject, is a MASSIVE list of recent books.
There are even several books about The Secret Of The Secret, and The Secret Behind The Secret.

And Joe Vitale seems to be cranking out a book a month, each one basically titled....
The Secret To Getting Everything You Want Now!!!!

This is why this area is a such a wasteland.
What it is, is you have an area where they can make a QUICK BUCK by simply making up things, by lying and oversimplfying life.
So you get tons of publishers, and super-Greedy faux "writers" like Joe Vitale, who will literally say anything to make a buck.
If a space alien ship appeared today, by tonight Joe Vitale would release a book called...
"How To Make Friends With Aliens and Get Rich Doing It".

This entire area is completely overrun with scam-artists out to make a buck.
The Secret is like Pet Rocks...

What's next?
Eckhart Tolle...
and then?

I quickly read "The Science of Getting Rich" by Wattles, its only 100 pages and is free online. Its straight up New Thought.
Its interesting Wattles does NOT mention his teacher in the book...if he had died so young, he would have been like Napoleon Hill of "Think and Grow Rich".

Wattles is not near as bad as some of the other ones. Basically what he says is...

Conceive, Believe, Take Action, Achieve.

He basically says...Visualize what you want, Believe 100% you are going to get it, and take Action right now today where you are.
(of course behind all this is the New Thought idea of Monism, Substance, etc)
So even if Wattles metaphysical ideas are completely false, the basic idea is pretty standard. As far as I could see he was NOT preaching Miracles in that book.

Notice how he adds take Action into his formula, which is different than many of the other New Thought people who are against taking "Action".
Anyway, here is the summary to the entire book...

_____________________________________________________
The Science of Getting Rich/Chapter 17
The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles
Summary of the Science of Getting Rich

[en.wikisource.org]